DoomsDay Chronicles
by NobleVillian
Summary: When the epic online pokemon game TPPC comes to life, the players must band together in real life to fight off the threat of pokemon in real life. Based on the online website and the pokemon franchise.
1. Infection

The day was coming to a close as the young man walked into his apartment door. A sigh came out bas he reached to put his jacket up on the hanger. The day was over, and man was he glad. The night was almost upon the city, and the moon had just begun to shine in the open curtains across the room. His apartment was a little messy, but whose wasn't when you had to work all day? He had already eaten before coming home, so he simply walked over and collapsed on the couch. Finally relaxed, he thought. But as quick as he sat down to relax his muscles; he realized he had work to do.

"I've gotta put that up on the site before everybody starts complaining." He said to himself. "Those kids on there are so impatient..." He smiled this time. Even though they could really bug him, he loved the site he ran and the topic. TPPC: one of the most played Pokémon games and websites on the entire net. He started the site over ten years ago, and now it's grown to something much larger than he ever though it would have been. He was proud of his work.

On the website he was Shrimpy, a name he had grown so accustomed to hearing that he would respond to it in real life if somebody yelled it out behind him. He had plenty of help on the website from the other moderators and assistants. Many had come and gone, but many have been with him on the site since the very beginning. It was approaching that time of the year again: Golden Day. The day where the site went crazy. Servers go down, people complain, site crashes, the usual stuff that happens when the traffic gets high. But each year it is always worth it. But what he was doing tonight had nothing to do with Golden Day. It was an all new aspect to the game that he was introducing. This new program would revolutionize the gameplay on the site.

He at last pulled himself up from the couch and moved over to the computer desk, where he silently pulled up the internet tab and put his USB drive into the computer. As happy as he was for the program to get installed, he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. He entered the password to his account and began to check around for a little first. Everything seemed to be going well. After a few minutes he logged back out and began to edit the site. The program was placed into the website script. He looked over the code to make sure all things would go smoothly. Nothing seemed out of place, and nothing seemed written wrong. Without another worry he clicked the option the save, closed the editing, then logged back into the account.

This new program would automatically generate the golden day pokemon without his knowledge, and then a computer bot would post the clues on the forum, leaving him to sit back, talk to players, and enjoy more instead of working. It also re-adjusted the leveling up values and set the bar of 'un-tradable' levels to 3000.

Well, at least that's what it should have done.

He logged onto a test account to check the program validation. Mewtwo was what the program decided to be the new golden. Everybody will like that, he thought to himself. He messaged Kife to tell him of what was about to test. Kife helping on the other side made things go a lot easier, instead of him logging in and out of test accounts.

"I need you to go online and created a trade to this account for my Golden Mewtwo, make sure everything will go over smoothly in trading." The first message said.

He created the trade and waited for a few minutes. Bleep. A reply. He checked his inbox.

"Alright." One second." Kife's reply came.

He waited another minute, then checked the account. Still nothing. Golden Mewtwo was still there.

Another minute. Still nothing.

Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. Nothing happened.

He finally messaged back: "Where are you?" it said.

No reply. He shrugged. He got up to get a glass of water. As he made it the kitchen his phone began to ring. He ignored the glass of water and walked over to the phone. If was Kife.

But why would he call him? He wondered. At last he picked up the phone and answered.

"Yea what's up?" He answered.

"I think your Golden Mewtwo is mutating." Kife's response came.

Shrimpy was confused. "Mutating? What do you mean?"

"Just go look on the computer." Kife said.

Shrimpy didn't complain or comment; he just walked back over to the computer. The screen was open to the Golden Mewtwo test account, so he just hit refresh. The screen flashed back to an updated box. Everything was still there. Even the Golden Mewtwo.

Only this time it was not at level 5.

It was at 5000.

"What in the hell?" He said out loud. "That shouldn't happen."

"Beats me." Check the code, man." Kife replied.

"Alright…" He said in response as he slowly clicked the phone off and began to work. He quickly logged into the editing and began to read through the code. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it. How was this happening? He continued to search, but still nothing showed its face. An hour, two had passed, but still nothing. He looked back over at the test account.

Golden Mewtwo was now at 12000.

"Holy…" He said out loud. Before he could begin to search again, something else flashed onto his screen.

VIRUS.

That was all.

Without knowing what to do, all he could think of was to lean over and turn the computer off. He pressed and held down the button on the computer. 

Nothing happened. The words VIRUS kept flashing on the screen. Without hesitation, he leaned down further and reached for the plug and jerked it from the wall.

The computer was still on.

Before he could do anything else, the computer screen began to glow white. It continued to get brighter over time, slowly, until he could not see anymore. The flash hurt his eyes so bad he was forced to cover them with his arms. The flash seemed to last forever, but it finally came to a close. As the light settled, he regained his sight slowly, until at last he could see again. When he opened his eyes, nothing seemed out of place, well, except for the computer being unplugged but still on, of course. He looked around. Everything was quiet. Nothing in his apartment appeared to have been moved or damaged. He slowly began to walk over to the computer.

That's when the explosion came from outside.

He hit the ground without a second thought, glancing out the window to see what was happening. The building beside him was crumbling to the ground. He could hardly hear anything other than the building.

And the screams.

He had no idea what to do at this point except to hide. To stand there. To run away. He had to get out of there. He grabbed his phone and a suitcase, quickly threw some clothes in it, along with a few other things he would need. Finally he ran over to the computer and grabbed the hard drive sitting on top of it. This was a small TPPC storage with vital information on the website. This was his site, and his problem. He had to fix it. But for now, he had to escape with what information he had. He finished packing the suitcase, and then ran out the door.

Just as he expected, people were fleeing desperately already to get away from the explosion. He ran with them, scared for his life, though not in fear. He was a few stories up, so he just decided to take the stairs, as he didn't want to risk the elevator in this chaos. With the rest of the crowd, he made his way down the stairs, through the lobby, and outside. By now the crowd was thinned in the lobby, as it was much larger, but as he ran towards the door, the crowd picked back up, and he fought desperately through the door. One glass door had already been broken down, and the other wide open. People were fleeing through both.

At last he made it to the outside. People were running in the streets in utter madness. It was a scary sight, one of the scariest sights he had ever seen in his life. Could anything be scarier than this? He thought as he turned around, only to find out that it could.

A Golden Mewtwo stood in front of him, and, from the look on its face, it had no intention of letting Shrimpy get away.


	2. Escape

Chapter 2

If the look on Mewtwo's face could be described in words, it would have probably been put down as "Apocalyptic." Its eyes glow bright red as its split-colored skin gleamed in the moonlight. This monster was way larger than the average Mewtwo, or at least what they were SUPPOSED to be. It stood well over twice Shrimpy's height. Scary wasn't even the right word for this abomination. Its hands were much larger than Shrimpy's face by at least two-fold. The worst part of all was it had no intention of letting him pass.

The man stood silent for a long while as people ran frantically away from the stare down between man and beast. Not a word was spoken for over a minute, Shrimpy too afraid to move, Mewtwo simply studying the man he was looking down on.

At last Mewtwo made his move.

Without warning he began to ripple in dark energy. The air around Mewtwo began to move back and forth in a patter all around his body. Slowly it turned purple, then to almost black. Seconds after, small debris picked up from the area and around him, and the air pressure began to intensify. Shrimpy, realizing what was about to happen, begun to run.

He didn't care where. He just took off. Anywhere but standing toe to toe with that giant was better. Anywhere his feet and legs would carry him. He just had to get away from there. He ran, faster and faster, away from Mewtwo and destroyed building. He tried not to look back, but he couldn't help himself. Multiple times he would look as he ran. Mewtwo hadn't moved, but the energy around him was growing. Even though he had ran this far, he could still feel it just as strong as he could before. Would you ever break free from this horrible feeling?

Nobody else was around anymore. Everybody had gone away. Shrimpy aimed now for a dark alleyway on the right. He knew the alley would cut through a large block and run into a larger street in the city. He had to find more people. Being alone was more than dangerous. It was deadly. Finding a crown was his only hope. Maybe together they could fight. Maybe together they could stand tall....

He quickly shook his head. What was he thinking? That monster, or Mewtwo, was huge. He couldn't get over what he was seeing still. That Mewtwo was real. It was directly in front of him. It could have killed him. However, thinking about it wouldn't solve anything at the moment. He just had to get out there. He lifted his head back up and began to run.

Only to find Mewtwo standing in front of him once more.

This time there was nowhere to hide. He couldn't get around him. All he could do was run backwards, but that wouldn't be enough to avoid the attack. A smile actually came over his face. He was foolish to think he could escape Mewtwo. He just closed his eyes. This has to be a dream, he thought. It must be. Once he dies he will wake up. He dozed off on the couch. He would just come back to the real world there, away from all this terror.

Mewtwo held his hand out. The dark energy moved quickly from surrounding his body and condensed itself into a ball in the palm of his hand, which was pointed out directly towards the man. This would all be over shortly. Reluctantly, Shrimpy put his hand down and accepted his fate.

The ball of energy went off and the explosion hit. Buildings burst into dark flames and began to crumble on top of Shrimpy and Mewtwo. There was little chance of survival. The sounds of terror overtook them both, and they fell into the darkness.

It took Shrimpy a minute to realize he wasn't dead. Instead, he was alive and well, somehow. After the shock wore off, he looked up in front of him to see what had befallen the scene. Mewtwo was lying on the ground, still alive, but dazed and slowly starting to get up. This was his time to run. He didn't waste the opportunity, and began to turn around to run.

That's when the other one caught his eye. He stopped before he ever really started to run away and turned around. Another pokemon was in front of him. The large, golden blob stood in front of him, the look in its eyes distant, confused, and carefree. Shrimpy could not believe his eyes. The monster looked at him and spoke.

"Wooooobbbuuufett!"

It was a Golden Wobbufett.

It was his Golden Wobbufett.

Shrimpy didn't know what to do. Wasn't sure how to react. This pokemon, no, his pokemon, saved his life from Mewtwo. Was this all a dream? It seemed so real. It had to be real. That's when the feeling finally hit him. He had to throw away all sense of logic to understand what had happened, but he was a smart man, and slowly it began to grasp him what had happened before him. Those pokemon in front of him, all the events that had happened, and these monsters he had known since he was a kid was real. All of it was real.

Shrimpy leaned down and hugged Wobbufett. "You saved me!" he said smiling. "Thank you so much!"

"Wooooobb?!" the pokemon screamed. Wobbufett shook Shrimpy off and began to run hurriedly around him. When he got to the end of the alley where Shrimpy had started to run in, he turned around and screamed at Shrimpy once more. "Woobb Woooobufett!" and hurried around the corner of the debris that was once a building.

Shrimpy didn't have to see anymore. Even if this was a dream, it was real enough for him not to want to die. The pain he felt, and anxiety, it was real enough to try. He followed Wobbufett without reply. The pokemon led Shrimpy down a series of alleys and roads for about ten minutes. Every turn Wobbufett made it to, he took without hesitation. Shrimpy followed obediently, deciding fast enough that it seemed as if Wobbufett knew where he was going, or at least trying to go, that he wouldn't interfere.

After running few more minutes, an explosion occurred behind the two. Shrimpy looked back around to see what and where it came from. He was no surprised to find that it came from Mewtwo's direction. Without thinking, he turned back to Wobbufett.

"He's back up! We have to get out of here!" he yelled at the blob. Wobbufett reacted as if he understood perfectly, and took off, running faster than seemed physically possible for those legs under him.

Shrimpy reached out as Wobbufett took off, increasing the distance. "I meant both of us...not just you..." he said in sarcasm. Wobbufett was just as sporadic as he was in all the games. "Guess I've got to keep up. He's probably scared too...if he even knows what that is." Shrimpy sighed and continued to run.

They didn't worry about Mewtwo, only running. The danger behind them was left behind in favor of focusing their own feet to keep going as fast as they could. They ran for another ten minutes before Wobbufett finally stopped. Shrimpy put his hands on his knees, breathing hard from the run. "This is ridiculous." he mumbled. "Where are we?" he asked before he could look.

Wobbufett had led him to the airport. Well, what use to be an airport. Now it looked more like a graveyard.

"Wob wob wob wobbufett fett." Wobbufett spoke, this time in a calmer manner.

Shrimpy looked up at the pokemon to find him staring off in the distance. At the far edge of the airfield was a small plane with lights on.

There were people outside of the plane. Shrimpy saw this and immediately smiled. He had a way out. He sighed, and then began walking. "Come on. Let's go." he motioned for Wobbufett as he began to walk inside the gate to the airfield. He laughed out loud over this. He had known Wobbufett for half an hour, but already he felt a bond with him, as if he really was his pokemon. He didn't question it. He kinda liked it, actually. For the first time he wondered if this really was real.

That changed fast after he heard the roar of monsters behind him.

He didn't want to turn around, but he knew he had to. Slowly his head rotated to see the horde behind him: Nidokings, Onyx, Salamence, Houndooms, and Tyranitars were all ready to pounce on them. None of them looked very happy. Shrimpy began to back away from them, careful not to startle anybody.

"Wobbufett.....when I say so...run..." he whispered.

No reply.

"Wobbufett!" He whispered again, this time louder than before.

Still no reply.

"Wobbufett!!!!!" he turned around this time to search for his partner.

He was already running.

"Whaaa!" Shrimpy said in surprise. He didn't have time to dwell. He just ran. He had to get there before the plane left.

As soon as he took off, the horde behind them began to follow. They were even louder than before, each of them screaming, howling, and roaring in rage. There was something odd about these pokemon, Shrimpy though. Most pokemon, according to the story, were not this hostile. Something had to be making them go into rage like this. Something had to be controlling them...

Mewtwo.

Still, he couldn't be thinking about this anymore. He had to focus on running. He was getting tired fast, and it was still a ways away from the plane. The people had seen them, however, and were anxiously waiting for him to arrive. He only hoped they would wait for him once they saw the horde behind him closing in. Not likely, but he had to try.

They ran on, Wobbufett had slowed down to let Shrimpy catch up. Once they were running together, they both picked up speed. The gate slowed the pokemon behind them down, but now that they were past the gate, they were beginning to catch up. At this rate, they wouldn't make it to the plane.

But final a glance of good luck fell on Shrimpy tonight. The plane still hadn't left, and in front of him was a sight for sore eyes. From the sky, the golden flash of light began to get closer and closer. At first he wasn't sure what it was, but as the flash grew closer, Shrimpy knew he would be safe tonight.

The horde behind them didn't stand a chance against the magnificent Golden Lugia.

Without hesitation, Lugia spread its wings and flew only a few feet over Shrimpy's head. It opened its mouth and unleashed a strong burst of energy upon the horde. They all flew aside and fell. Their large group shattered in the awe of such a pokemon.

"Hell yea!" Shrimpy shouted. How could this night get any more dramatic? At each turn, he was saved by his own pokemon. He had never been happier to see these golden wonders.

By now he was at the plane. There were only two other people here: a younger in the pilot seat and an older woman waving at him to get on. Once she was certain he would make it, she ran on herself. Shrimpy ran on shortly afterwards and closed the door behind him. Wobbufett followed after. 

He closed the door and immediately sat down with a sigh of relief. "Thank you guys...so much..." he said.

The old woman smiled. "It's not a problem, young man. Once we saw you, we knew we had to wait. Here" she handed him a bottle of water. "Relax now. We are getting out of the city."

Shrimpy took the water and downed it, happy to be out of that mess. Wobbufett was standing around awkwardly, looking at everything as if it were a complete mystery. He guessed it was a mystery for these creatures, these....whatever they were. They couldn't be real, could they? But that gut feeling told him they were.

Then it hit him. The woman had said nothing about Wobbufett. He decided to bring the conversation up.

"You don't seem surprised about my friend here." Shrimpy stated.

The old woman smiled. "No, I suppose I'm not. It's kind of hard to be surprised when one follows me around as well." When she spoke those words, a creature came out from the cockpit area. It was small, but seemed very confident. Shrimpy immediately recognized it as Farfetch'd. "It seems that the ones we own in the game are out there somewhere. They are looking for us...since we are there masters. Just like this little one."

Farfetch'd jumped up on her shoulders and screamed, as if to confirm what she said.

Wobbufett walked up to Shrimpy and stood still. Shrimpy stood back up and steadied himself. His legs were hurting now after he sat down for a few minutes. "The game? You mean TPPC?" he asked.

The woman shook her head yes. "That game, though I haven't been on in awhile. You might know me as Pokeholic."

It made sense to Shrimpy now. This had to be real. Something happened tonight that would forever change his life, and the lives of thousands of others. His train of thought disintegrated into air as his phone rang. He picked it up. Kife was calling him. He answered the phone.

"Yes?" Shrimpy said immediately.

"What the hell just happened?" Kife said.

Shrimpy sighed. "We've got a lot to tell..."

"I would say so." Kife replied. "This has been declared a national disaster. It's not just here. All over the US is being ravaged. It's too crazy to be real, but it's happening."

Shrimpy didn't want to believe what he was hearing, but he had no choice. "We need to meet. Get a hold on the others."

"Alright. Where at?" Kife asked.

"I don't know. I'm with Pokeholic right now. Long story. Just get a hold of the others and I'll call you back."

"Alright. Just call back soon. This is insane." Kife replied.

Shrimpy hung up the phone. He looked over at Pokeholic. "Where can this plane take us?"

Pokeholic shrugged. "How far do you need to go?"

"Washington D.C." came the reply.


	3. Savior

Chapter 3

It was a relatively warm day in early December as Kim stepped out of her house with her parents. The warmth was quite welcome, as it had been snow on the ground only four days ago. She was dressed in simple jeans and a white tee. She wore a yellow jacket over that. Her hair wad down this morning. She didn't have time to really worry. Yesterday they had received word that the rampage was heading this way. It had been a week since it first appeared on TV. Across the country, sightings of pokemon had appeared in catastrophic proportions. At first she couldn't believe it. Nobody could, really. But the longer it lasted, the more coverage that happened, the more real it got. Nobody in smaller towns like this had seen any of these pokemon yet, but they were all very sure and very afraid of what was to come.

Well, nobody except Kim.

Two days ago, in the almost melted snow, Kim snuck outside, despite her parents' permission, to go...well, get outside. She had been cramped inside since the start, and she was aching to go outside. So she did, and what she saw she could not believe, still didn't believe. She had spotted Mew, or so she thought. She wasn't entirely sure, but she was almost positive, especially since the outbreak. A week before she would have called herself crazy, but now she just might be seeing what she thought.

With her parents, she walked out of the house and into their car. They were driving to a larger town to find shelter. Once this approaching mass arrived, the town might be wiped out. It had taken the country a week to actually believe what they were seeing to judge how they should react based on the fact they were pokemon. Kids all over the country had been warning their parents of certain things, but they never listened, and they paid the price. The death toll so far was already in the thousands. Mewtwo had decimated much of San Francisco a week before. That was where it all started.

But now it had spread across the world. Soon after, outbreaks had happened in New York, Chicago, even New Orleans. Just a day later, London, Tokyo, Moscow, and other large cities across the world were hit. Eventually, they had spread to every region of the planet. Not all of them were evil, though. Some were actually very friendly and helped the people out in need. Others, however, attacked anybody on site.

They drove on through the morning into Toronto. She lived only a few miles outside of the city, but far enough away it was a smaller town. Toronto had shelters for people to stay in. Those small towns like that could be overtaken at any time. That's why her family had decided to take shelter.

Kim was a quiet girl. She loved her friends and missed them dearly. Some of them would be waiting where she went, but she wondered what would happen to those who stayed behind, those who didn't believe anything could happen to them. She wished she could save them all. But life was cruel, and she could do nothing at the moment but make herself feel bad by pondering on the matter, so she focused on the future. She had to get out now.

Her thoughts drifted back to that Mew. What was it doing there? She had always enjoyed pokemon, even before all of this had happened. She played the games, used to watch the show, and never thought it any more than just a game. She even played online. The game, TPPC, was her favorite. She enjoyed playing, talking on the forums, and the people on there. There, she didn't go by Kim. She went by Bunny there.

But that was part of the past now. After this last week, things had changed. Pokemon had seemingly came from the ground, wrecked cities, and destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. This was officially a world crisis now. The military units of the world had attempted to fight back, but their efforts were failing. It seemed as if they were damn near invincible. They could be taken out, but only at severe casualties. These things were definitely not normal. Some might even say they seemed divine.

Her train of thought was broken when, without warning, an explosion jolted the car off the road and in the air. The car flipped twice, and then landed on its side. Kim screamed in fear. What had just happened?! She caught glimpses outside as they rolled; trying to figure out what had done this. Keeping her equilibrium was difficult, and the time seemed to go by so slow, but at least she spied what had done this.

It was Rampardos. Multiple of them. This all seemed to go so fast. Even though they had watched it on TV, it had never really sunk in to her until now. They were being attack. This was now a matter of life and death.

"Get out, quick!" Kim heard her mother yell. She looked around to make sure she was still intact. Nothing seemed hurt, so she obeyed her mother and unbuckled her seatbelt, then reached up for the door, pushed up on it to open it, then slowly climbed out and landed on her feet. She looked back towards the attackers. A few of the Rampardos were following them. There were seven all together, but only two were coming after them.

"Run, Kim!" her father yelled this time. She turned back around to find her parents running at her, attempting to grab her. She didn't hesitate, she just ran with them. They were almost in the Toronto limits. If they could just make it there...

Together with her parents they ran, attempting to keep as much room between them and the Rampardos as they possibly could. They were failing miserably, but the only had to make it into the city. Somebody there would help them. Kim continued to look back, only to notice their pursuers catching up.

Then Kim's mother hit the ground. Her leg fell into a hole, and the impact hit at just a position to send her flying over. Kim and her father stopped, not sure what to do. The Rampardos was catching up quickly now. They spied Kim's mother and immediately changed their focus to her alone. She would be their prey.

Unless Kim could do something. But what could a girl like her do? She had no weapons, could not fight, or do anything. Her mother would not want her to put herself in danger. She would want her to escape. But she couldn't live knowing she didn't try. She had to try...

Heroically she turned and around and ran back to her mother. She had no idea what she would do, so she stood in front of her, attempting to block the path between the Rampardos and her mother. She had no idea why she did this, or what came over her, but something told her she could do it.

"Please...help me..." She whispered as a tear rolled down her face.

Her prayer was answered. As Rampardos dove in for the kill, something swooped in from the sky and knocked them both off their feet and to the ground. Kim saw what had happened, but she couldn't believe her eyes.

Latias had come to her rescue. Her Latias, she had no doubt. Was this the feeling she had? It was almost as if she felt Latias coming to her aid before she even made the call to run backwards.

Latias turned in midair and dove down on the remaining Rampardos coming now. They stood no chance against the glorious, legendary pokemon that was fighting for the girl. Without effort it had taken them all on, and without effort it defeated them each. The Rampardos had nothing else to do but retreat for now.

After all was clear again, Latias landed beside Kim and lowered her face. Kim petted the large beast, which stood obediently as if they had known each other forever. Her father helped her mother stand up again, and they wiped off the dirt and rubble that had covered her when she fell, then they both stood in awe at the sight in front of them.

"Kim...what is that?" Her mother asked.

Kim smiled shyly, as if she had been keeping this bird in her own room this whole time and cat had been let out of the bag. "I can explain!" She said happily.

Hundreds of miles away, flying somewhere over Pennsylvania, Shrimpy sat in the cockpit of the little plane that had so timely saved his life only a week ago. He looked out of the window at the earth below, almost hoping to see the variety of pokemon he had let loose upon the planet, but from up here he couldn't make out any figures.

Pokeholic had been very nice to him. She with her daughter had just landed from a flight when the attack had happened, and they immediately found the small plane docked in the airfield. The pilot was dead, probably from the attack. Thousands of Fearows, Pidgeots, and Altarias had swarmed the airport at the start, and then only minutes before Shrimpy shown up they had left. Luckily, her daughter was a pilot, and the plane had been an opportune escape route. While they were preparing the plane, the Farfetch'd had appeared. Pokeholic enjoyed the company, found the pokemon to be innocent, so she took it along with them.

Now they were flying across the country on their way to the capital city, Washington D.C. Shrimpy only hoped that somebody there would let him speak his case. He had been reviewing the program he brought with him, and learned a few things about what had went on, though he would need better equipment and help to fully discover what would going on.

He kept in touch with Kife up until two days ago when his phone finally died. Kife had gotten a hold of other moderators from the site: Darkheart, Deimos, Charizard, and the rest, and they all agreed it would be best to find a way to meet and discuss what was happening. The others were all safe, and Shrimpy was glad to hear it. Maybe they could finally figure things out.

But things could never go that easy. Shrimpy knew that as soon as the plane began to shake.

"Damn....not good." Came the voice of the pilot.

Shrimpy stood up. "What now?" he asked.

The pilot was fighting to steady the vehicle, but they continued to pick up interference and shake more. "We're under attack!" she yelled.

Shrimpy ran up to the cockpit and looked out the window again. Moltres flew around them, attempting to ram them out of the sky.


	4. High Flyer

The plane tumbled back and forth as Shrimpy and Pokeholic attempted to stay standing in the small plane. Pokeholic's daughter desperately attempted to keep the plane in the air, and, for now, the battle was going ok, but the more Moltres rammed the plane, the harder it was becoming. Moltres was not only strong, it was smart, and rammed directly under and around the win, as if trying to completely knock it off and send the plane down. Shrimpy honestly had no idea what to do at the moment, but he knew he had to try. At this rate, the plane would be history, and there was nothing that the pilot could do about it except attempt to stall the giant bird. He ran out of the cockpit and back into the main room.

"Wobbufett!" he yelled. It took the blob a few seconds, but, sure enough, it appeared.

"Wooooobb!" It yelled.

"No time for that, Wobbufett. We've got to help keep this plane in the air." Shrimpy replied.

Wobbufett seemed to nod, then walked foreword to Shrimpy. He was amazed at how well they had come to understand each other. It never seemed to make sense when listening to the old shows and games, but now he was beginning to understand. It was almost as if telepathic. Pokemon wore their thoughts on their sleeves, and you could easily tell what they wanted, even a pokemon as brain dead as Wobbufett, thought Shrimpy connected this one's improved intelligence to to the fact it was golden. He thought back to the night this all started. Wobbufett had saved his life, and he had become a friend. It was all too surreal...

His thoughts were lost in another hit by Moltres, this one harder than before. It was started to get irritated. At this rate they wouldn't last much longer. Shrimpy had to do something. If only Lugia were here, but Shrimpy couldn't dwell on that at the moment. He had Wobbufett, and he would deal with the problem with what he had. Wobbufett was strong, and he could fend off Moltres. The hard part was finding a place to do so from.

That problem didn't last much longer. On the next ram, Moltres hit the back end of the plane, sending the entire back of the plane flying off to the ground. The wind began to blow, and it became hard to stand. With no back, the plane began to tilt down now, and there was nothing the pilot could do to change it. They could only hope to crash land safely. Moltres was screaming a horrible cry as it circled around towards the back. It had a clear opening now, and had no intentions of ramming the plane again. Its mouth opened and fire began to spurt from its beak.

"Wobbufett! You know what to do." Shrimpy said. The created, mumbling its name, ran up to the edge of the plane where the breach had been formed and stood there. It began to glow a strange color as Moltres unleashed a fury of flame upon the crashing ship. Before the blast could hit head on, Wobbufett's mystic power sent the flame back upon the bird, who attempted to move out of the way, not expecting its own blast to hit itself. It failed to dodge, and the flames knocked the bird back a little, but nothing too bad. It re-positioned itself and began to charge again.

"This isn't helping. Fire can't hurt fire." Shrimpy said. But at least he was keeping them safe. Safe from what? They were falling as fast as gravity would allow them towards the ground. They had to find some way to escape.

Moltres unleashed another blast, this one much bigger than before, and it raged towards Wobbufett, who was charging up another Mirrorcoat attack to deflect the blast. At the last second the defense took effect, and the blast hit head on. This time, the blast didn't immediately get deflected back, but instead fought intensely with the Mirrorcoat for ground. Wobbufett screamed, and finally knocked the blast back onto Moltres again. This time, Moltres fell.

"Good job, Wobbufett!" He said as he ran over to him. He looked off the edge of the rift. They were moving quickly down, but at an angle. Perhaps there was still a possibility of a safe crash landing. Perhaps Pokeholic's daughter could land the ship safely still.

Then another smash into the plane ended his hopes. Shrimpy and Wobbufett both lost their footing, and both fell out of the plane. They were free falling now. Wobbufett, Shrimpy doing the same. There was nothing they could do now except hope they land in water, and even that might not save them.

The last thing he remembered was softly landing on the back of an unknown figure before passing out.

When Shrimpy awoke, he was lying in a bed. The room was bright. Florescent lights shined from all angles. He sat up, body aching and still fully dressed. There were long rows of beds. People occupied some, but for the most part the room was empty. A couple of Nurses were walking around. Shrimpy decided to be brave and stand up. His body ached in pain, but he could still mange. Once he stood up, a Nurse immediately moved over to him.

"Oh, you are awake. How do you feel?" the woman asked him.

"Umm....fine...I guess...where is Wobbufett?" He asked. "Where am I?"

The nurse smiled. "That creature we found you with? He's fine. We have him locked up right now. Once you were awake we planned on letting him out. Anyways, the commander wants to see you, and I'm sure your friends will be happy to see you are ok." She said, then turned around towards the door.

"Friends?" Shrimpy asked himself. None of this made any sense. The last thing he remembered was falling from the sky after the plane fell apart from the attack by Moltres. Wobbufett had successfully defended the plane, or what was left of it, before he and Shrimpy had been knocked off the plane. He had no memory of ever landing. Subconsciously, he supposed, he thought he might have been dead, but common sense told him otherwise. He was indeed alive. But how? Who had saved him? Was it Lugia again?

"Hey, buddy. Glad you are safe." he heard a voice say from the door the nurse had walked out of. Shrimpy looked up, then smiled. Kife walked in the doorway.

"How in the world did I get here?" Shrimpy asked. "And what are you doing here?"

Kife laughed. "Long story. I'll explain it on the way."

"On the way where?"

"To see the President, of course!"

"The president? Of the United States?!" Shrimpy was astonished. Was he in DC? Did he make it there? No, somebody must have found him and brought him here.

"Yes, that President. Now, walk and I'll do the talking." Kife replied.

Shrimpy shrugged, and took a place beside Kife as they walked out of the room. Kife led and began talking.

"You said you were on a small plane. Once we heard of a crash, I knew it was you. So I urged them to send a team to go get you. I was right, too. If we hadn't gotten there within the next few hours, that old woman would be dead. She sustained bad injures. The girl broke an arm, but other than that she was fine." Kife explained.

"What about me?" I mean, I guess I'm fine, but..."

"We found you on the ground over a mile away from the crash site. You were unharmed but exhausted. You've been sleeping for three days now. I take it you haven't slept a lot this last week."

"No, not really..." Shrimpy dazed off. He was unharmed? Something saved him. Was it Lugia? What had happened back there? He supposed it didn't matter anymore. He and Wobbufett were safe, he had found Kife, and now maybe he was in just the chance to solve this problem he had started.

"We are in a secret military base, believe it or not." Kife continued. After I lost track of you, I went and urgently requested a meeting with somebody important. I knew what was going on, and I knew you. It was hard to get them to listen to be, but I finally got a meeting. Once I told them what was going on, they seemed to take me at face value. I know it's crazy, but there is no denying that these monsters are pokemon. I told them you had samples of the virus, and if we found you, we might be able to research what had happened."

Shrimpy listened intently to Kife's story. He was so happy to be out of the plane, back with other people. He felt like they stood a chance. Now. He examined as he walked with Kife. They were in some area. The place was made entirely of metal, and there were no windows, making Shrimpy to believe that he was underground. The lights shined brightly and gave the place an odd, sci-fi feeling. They passed rooms with scientists examining pokemon in what appeared to be clean rooms. Some rooms had humans in it who were survivors of attacks. This place definitely wasn't just for show. "Is anybody else here?" Shrimpy asked.

"Yea, Deimos. He was the only one I could find who would come here on such short notice."

"He's weird like that."

"True."

"Well. I think I've heard enough." Shrimpy said. "And yes, I do have samples, if you guy collected my stuff."

Kife nodded. "They found a lot of personal belongings at the crash site."One of them was your jump drive. That it?"

"Yea, that's it. What about the hard drive?" Shrimpy asked.

"They never mentioned anything about a hard drive."

"Dammit." Shrimpy said. "That had a lot of TPPC data saved on it. Without that, we will only have the server's data to work with. We should be able to manage though."

"Well what do you think is wrong with all of this?" Kife asked.

"From my thoughts? It's a virus of some sort. Something caused it all to go out of control. How that linked to this phenomenon I have no idea, but as for the site, it was definitely a virus."

"Hmm...Well, we are almost here. Feel free to explain everything to the President." Kife replied.

Shrimpy's stomach turned. The President? This would be nerve-wracking. "Yea...I'll try." he said.

They at last made a turn and began walking through another hallway, this one with only doors, no windows to other rooms. At the end of the hallway, two Secret Service members stood guarding a door. One of the members pulled his collar up to his mouth, spoke a few unintelligible words, then stepped aside.

The two friends walked through the guarded door into the President's office.


	5. Trauma

Chapter 5

Kim yawned as she sat up in her chair.

"Today is boring." She sighed. "About like every other day since I got here."

She stood up and walked out of the small room that was obligated to her and her parents. There was two beds. Her parents used those, and she slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. There was no sink, and the bathroom was down the hall. She could imagine this is what it would feel like to be in prison. Prison was exactly what she felt at this moment. She had been trapped in this building for three days now, and she longed for something to do. This safehouse, or so they called it, was just a big building in Toronto. Mewtwo ripped through an entire building in seconds. What good would staying here do them? She guessed the regular pokemon weren't as strong as the Mewtwo in California, but what if something else of that caliber was out there? They wouldn't stand a chance.

Then she began to wonder. "Golden Mewtwo? I don't remember any of them in the game.." Was that going to be the new promo? Or was it just not on the rankings or rarity lists? Then she caught herself, realizing that dwelling on TPPC wouldn't get her anywhere either. She wanted to be outside again. She wanted to see Latias again.

The majestic bird was only with her for the rest of that day. Once they entered the city she had to let her go, but she had a strange feeling as if it hadn't gone far. If she could only get outside. The doors at the front and back were all watched by guards. Perhaps she could climb to the top of the building and see what was there? Maybe Latias would come to her there?

Then she quickly overruled that idea. People would freak out at the sight of a pokemon. Most people didn't realize what was going on, but Kim was smart. Though it was a stretch, she was almost certain that this disaster had something to do with TPPC. How else would Latias, her best pokemon in the game, know to come save her? No, it really didn't make sense, but nothing about this made sense, so thinking outside the box, that was a distinct possibility.

Knowing she really couldn't do anything, she just went back and sat down. She knew nobody here. Most were from towns other than hers. She came to the city frequently and knew people there, but it wasn't like she could leave. At least the chair was somewhat comfortable. She would doze off from time to time, thinking about Latias and that Mew she saw back home, wondering if she was imagining all of this. Each time she would wake up, look around, realize that she was not in her room, and make her grim choice.

The dozing stopped in the afternoon, however, when she was woke up by a pleasant sound, one she almost subconsciously hoped and expected to hear.

"Buneary!!!" came the noise from directly in front of her. It startled her, and she jumped up, knocking the figure off and into the floor. The rabbit-like creature face planted and rolled over. 

"Buune! Buneary.." it spoke as if trying to get Kim's attention. Kim finally looked at the creature long enough to realize what was in front of her.

"Oh my! I'm so happy!" She leaned over, picked up the rabbit, and hugged him tightly. Buneary seemed to enjoy and did not resist.

"How did you find me?" Kim asked. "How did you know I was here?"

Buneary spoke, but Kim really couldn't get a feeling as to what he was saying. She could just tell that he was as happy to see her and she was to see him. Maybe now she would have something to do around this place. But she had to keep him secret. If people found out about a pokemon in the building, no matter how small, they would freak.

"Come on, we have to find somewhere for you to stay." Kim told Buneary. She got up out of the chair again and walked upstairs, and the rabbit followed. Maybe he could stay on the roof. She doubted many people went up there, and, if they did, there should be placed for him to hide. Pokemon were smart, she learned that, so if she told him something he would understand.

The building was over ten stories tall, but Kim didn't mind the exercise. Anything was ok after being cramped up in the building all this time. She made it to the top without meeting a soul. Surprisingly, the roof door was not guarded. She guessed the guards weren't too worried about people jumped off the roof to get out, and if people were willing to risk jumping building to building to get free, they might as well just let them go. She looked down to see if anybody was coming, and then opened the door. It squeaked more than the others, but she paid no mind and went outside.

It was much colder than it was only a few days ago. The breeze came full force where she was standing out in the open. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to leave Buneary out in the open like this, she thought. She looked around over the city to see the sights. Traffic still flowed, but nothing like the way things were before the crisis. Most people were too afraid to be caught out of their homes if another attack hit. Canadian troops were stationed block to block on patrol, and the time people were allowed out was limited to daylight. In the winter, as it was now, there was not much time to be allowed outside. What was the world coming to?

"Well…I guess it's too cold for you to stay up here, isn't it?" She said to Buneary, who responded with a reply and a nod. Kim smiled. "Thought so. Let's go back inside."

She would have made it back inside, but she caught a glimpse of something approaching from behind. She turned around, anxious and hopeful of who it might be, and her suspicions were correct. Latias flew in and landed on the roof beside her. Kim rushed up to the beast and hugged it with all her might, and the bird seemed happy of the welcome.

"I'm glad you are back!" She said, but when she looked up, she saw worry on the bird's face. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly back.

Laitas emitted a strange cry of worry. Kim wasn't sure of what she was saying, but she knew something was about to happen. Something bad. 

"Don't worry. We will be ok, alright?" She tried to calm the bird, but the effort was getting her nowhere.

Then the building began to shake. Kim kept her balance, then it hit her. The building was collapsing. But why?! She saw no explosions, no attacks. She went over to the front of the building, careful not to fall, to where a steel railing was at and looked off, holding on carefully as not to plummet to the ground level. People were already running out of the door to the streets, screaming to get away. The ground shook again as a corner of the building gave way. This would not be pretty.

Kim panicked. She had no time to get to the bottom, no time to find her parents. The building was already collapsing! She had to fly away on Latias. It was her only hope. She ran back over to the bird, Buneary in hand, and jumped on.

"Let's get out of here." She said calmly, though on the inside she was a wreck. She began to worry about her parents. Were they ok? Would they escape the confines of the building? She knew they would, but she also knew they would be worried about her. She had to find a way to let them know she was ok…

Another corner collapsed and the building began to fall. On ground level, Kim could spy out large, gray forms coming out of the ground. Aggron, she noticed. That's why she never saw it coming. They were attacking from underground. Just as she thought those thoughts, other buildings began to collapse as well. Why was all of this happening? She just wanted to live happily, with her friends and parents.

Laitas flew south, soaring across the city at extreme speeds. Within minutes, the city was behind them, and they flew south. Kim was cold from the breeze, and she motioned for Latias to slow down. The bird replied silently. Kim could feel the air slow down around her as she caught her breath in the cold air.

"We have to go back, Latias. We have to make sure my parents were alright." Kim said.

Latias let out a cry with an eerie feeling. Kim, without really thinking, turned around behind her.

They were being swarmed by flying pokemon. All shapes and sizes flew at them. She had no choice now. If they stayed and fought, they would fall. They had to run.

A tear came from her eye as the issued the command. "Latias, let's get out of here."

The bird acknowledged the command and picked up speed, as the trio of master and pokemon flew south.

Shrimpy sighed with relief after he finished his speech with the President. He still wasn't over the fact. The PRESIDENT. Of the entire US was standing front of him, listening intently to what he had just told him, trying to decipher the information. It was Barack Obama. Perhaps if anybody would believe it, it would be him. He hoped, at least.

"So these pokemon, as you call them, why are they acting like this?" Obama asked Shrimpy.

"Well, it has something to do with the virus in the programming. I really couldn't tell you at this very moment. I need more time to study the virus, and more people to help me."

"And if we give you this, will you be able to discover what's going on here?" came the reply.

"We should be able to. Once we know what's causing this, we can start to make a counter-offensive and put a stop to it."

The President stood up. "Normally, what you tell me would put you in an insane asylum. But after the last week, I have no real choice but to attempt this. Our military can't seem to put a stop to them. The small ones will fall, but the larger ones, our guns do not even affect. So, I will give you a week to process the information you have and figure out what is going on. Feel free to use any recourses, including the scientists here, to figure it out."

Shrimpy and Kife both shook their heads. "We understand. We will do everything in our power." Kife replied this time.

The President nodded, then walked over to the two men and shook each of their hands. "That is all, and good luck." He said intently.

Both of them replied, answered the handshake, and turned around out of the room. Once they left, Kife wiped his forehead clean of sweat. "Man..that was nerve-wracking. So now what?" he asked Shrimpy.

"We do just what we said. We get to work." He pulled out the jump drive and began to walk down the hallway. Kife followed silently, anxious to put all of this mess back to the way it was.


	6. Sacrifice cCc Absoyena cCc

Chapter 6

Latias began to get tired that evening.

It had been flying for two days now, and the swarm showed little sign of stopping. Some of them had landed to rest, but many more continued to chase them. They would have to land soon, and when they did things would get dirty. Kim was tired of flying. She hadn't been asleep since yesterday morning, and her exhaustion was showing.

Kim looked below, impervious to the chase now, looking for somewhere to hide. She would have to find a place soon. She estimated they were no longer in Canada, and probably a hundred miles or more into the US now. There were fields mainly below them, but in the distance a city began to show. It was large, a lot like Toronto, but she wasn't sure what city it was, nor how far they had actually flown. Latias was fast, that was obvious, but she had never really been in a situation like this, so she really couldn't tell.

"Latias, take us down into the city. There has to be somebody there." Kim commanded.

Latias replied and began to dive into the city. Perhaps they could find somewhere in there to lose them. Perhaps there would be help. She didn't care what happened; she just had to find somewhere to rest both her and Latias. Beaunary was tired as well. Though not directly involved, he could not sleep so high in the air, so he was fighting to keep his own consciousness as well.

They breached the city building tops and dove down between the buildings, flying over the streets. The birds behind them still. Some of them had flown off, but a large group of Fearows were still following, probably fifty or sixty. If it were only a few of them, even a dozen, Kim would turn and fight. She was confident her Latias could take them. But this many, they could swarm her and Latias wouldn't stand a chance.

"There!" Kim pointed out a small alleyway for Latias to fly into. Latias listened and dove even further, this time into the dark alley instructed. They landed, and Kim jumped off Latias immediately. The Fearow would have a harder time getting in here. Perhaps Latias could fend them off here one at a time, or they would give up eventually and leave. She knew she wasn't the best trainer, but she felt she was strong and smart enough to outsmart her enemy.

"Latias, when they enter the alley, unleash everything you've got at them, ok?" Kim said. Latias roared in agreement and jumped up in a ready position. They waited anxiously, the birds slowly coming closer. Some cries sounded as if they flew over, but Kim knew they watched them fly in.

The first Fearow entered the alley. Latias didn't even hesitate. It fired, without warning, a large beam of energy at the Fearow, knocking it out of the sky faster than a meteor fell from space. Kim smiled for the first time all day. Perhaps they did stand a chance! Two, three, four flew in, and each time, Latias scolded them out of the sky, roaring in victory after each one.

The battle continued over five more minutes. Endless amounts of Fearow flew into the alley, and Latias continued to battle them off. The Fearow slowly made it closer each time, and Kim could see Latias growing tired. Latias wouldn't last much longer. It was growing tired fast.

Then the entire alley was swarmed. Dozens of Fearow flew in from all sides, seeking to take out Latias once and for all. They knew how powerful the legendary bird could be, and they wanted to take no more risks. This would be the end of them, Kim thought. Latias couldn't stand another assault, especially one this big.

Latias looked back at Kim with a resounding look in its eye. Kim knew there was something wrong. "Latias?" she said.

Latias took off out of the Alley. The Fearow followed it immediately. Kim watched as the bird flew away, taking all of the troubles away with it.

She fell to her knees then. Had Latias sacrificed itself to save her? Why would it? Kim had no idea what to do now.

"Beaunary?" she heard from her folded arms below. She looked down at the bunny. "Why?" she asked. "Latias….didn't have to do that..."

But Kim had no time to stand still. A cry wailed from above her. She looked up fast; the tears flew from her eyes onto the broken concrete below. Another Fearow had stayed behind, no fooled by Latias' attempt to save its master, and came after Kim now. She had no idea what to do now. All she could do was run.

Kim turned and ran out of the alley before the Fearow could get close enough. She did not look back, but apparently, the Fearow could not stop fast enough, and it flew into the trash barrels in the alley. She knew that wouldn't stop it though. It would blast out of that alley any second and come after her, and she could not escape.

She looked around. She was in a part of the city where the buildings were large and tall, and streets were filled with cars. Most of the doors she saw were barred shut, nailed shut, or there were no doors, so the cover would be miniscule. Maybe she could hide in a car? She stopped at a taxi and looked around. Most of the cars around here had the windows broken out. Apparently this city had been ravaged. Security must not have been as tight here as it was in Toronto. It looks like hiding in a car was a no go, as well.

The Fearow broke out of the alley now and turned down the street toward Kim. She turned around to face it. Beaunary then jumped out of her arms and landed on top of the taxi beside her.

"What are you doing!?" She asked desperately. "You can't beat it!"

Beaunary looked back and Kim. A smile was on his face.

Regret filled her eyes. She hadn't been able to save her parents. She hadn't been able to save Latias, and now, even Beaunary was standing between her and this Fearow, regardless of the chances to beat the bird. Why was everybody left to her sacrificing their selves to save her? She would much rather them be safe than her. Why did they all keep doing this?!

Fearow dove in for the kill at last.

Only to be crushed by a large block of concrete.

Kim's eyes were wide. What had just happened? Again, on the verge of death, she had been saved.

"Good shot buddy!" Kim heard from behind her.

"Suuudoooo!" came a reply.

"Dad, every time I see him, he seems even strong than before!" It was the voice of a small girl.

"Yea, I know, right? I sure am awesome!" came another voice.

Kim was still too much in shock to turn around. She just stood there, legs shaking, body frozen. Why was she still alive?

"Swaaampert!" came a low, grumbling roar.

"You can't celebrate! You didn't do any work." The girl's voice replied to the roar.

"You can turn around now!! Heyyyy!" We don't bite!" the second voice said.

Kim finally managed to turn around after another few seconds and the sound of approaching footsteps. When she turned around, the scariest Swampert stood behind her. This was possibly the scariest thing Kim had ever seen. She was too afraid to jump backwards or run. A girl sat on top of its head as the Swampert stared Kim down.

"You don't have to be afraid! He's nice!" the little girl said.

Kim stepped forward. Swampert turned around and began walking back to where it came from. Kim followed the beat silently. Beaunary saw that Kim was leaving, so turned and hopped beside her. Kim saw a pile of cars, trucks, and taxis in the middle of the street. Atop the pile sat a man, though she could not tell much about it. How did she miss the man before? Had they just showed up? Kim was getting tired these lucky breaks. Why couldn't things just be easy?

They finally arrived at the pile. The man on top jumped down. He was dressed in rags with a backpack. He was bald. Well, almost. He had a Mohawk, but the rest of his head was bald. He wore glasses, and carried a staff.

"You looked like you were in trouble. We heard the battle, so thought we would come by and say hello!" he said.

The girl jumped off of Swampert's back and took a place by the man. The man rubbed the girl's hair. "Good job, princess." Then he turned back towards Kim.

"The way that pokemon follows you, and the Latias that flew out of that alley, I'd say you've formed a bond with the pokemon as well. At least the ones that were supposed to be yours. So what is your name?"

"I'm Kim." She finally managed to spit out.

"Nooo. Not that name. I mean your tppc name. It's pretty obvious what caused all of this, well, aside from fact that pokemon are rampaging the world and the virtual have became real, but by this point in time that seems to be a minor detail!" The man caught himself. "Sorry, I'm rambling. So, what's your name on tppc?"

"I'm bunny on the website." She answered. She had no idea why she answered, or why she didn't question him, but she did. She really didn't care anymore.

"Ah, yes. I remember a bunny on there!" The man put out his hand. "This pretty girl here is my daughter. You might know her as Princess Blackfire. My real name is unimportant, so you can just call me Lawnbuddha!"


	7. Calling

Brett stood at the crossroads. He smiled at the sound of that thought. He was literally at the crossroads. All around him were plains as far as the eye could see. From his best estimation, he was somewhere in North Kansas. The fields were dead in the middle of the winter, but still tall. A small gas station was at the crossroad he was standing at. He had already raided the gas station of everything thing left.

It had been only two weeks since the start of this debacle, but already the world seemed so much emptier. He had left his home ten days ago, for it had been hit hard fast. His parents died on the first day, his sister on the third. He hadn't been able to protect them back then. He had no desire to stay in his own in Arkansas. Those lonely hills were infested with pokemon now. At first it was smaller ones, like Caterpies and Weedles. They were annoying, really, but not dangerous. Then, by the end of the night, the entire town was infested with monsters. Tropius, Exeggutor, and Venusaur overran the town and killed almost everybody.

Then Groudon appeared. He cared nothing of anybody, not even the pokemon, and wiped out nearly everything, leaving the town in ashes. Only he and a few others had survived. He had nothing left in that town. There was no food, no supplies, barely any houses, and a raging legendary beast roaming his home town. So, a day after the attack, after his last relative died, he packed up what he had left and left his home to move north.

He carried a shotgun, not for protection against the monsters, but mainly for protection against other humans. People might be savage in a world like this, especially if catastrophes like the one in his town had happened everywhere else. Therefore, protection would be good to have.

Brett moved north, out of Arkansas and into Missouri. Not a lot had happened at first, at least not until he crossed the boarders. Arkansas was always a fairly non-populated place before the attacks, so it was even more so now. Most of the pokemon he ran into were not hostile, but the ones he noticed were always far away, so he never had much trouble staying out of trouble.

Two days into Missouri he ran into his first attack. A hostile Donphan attacked him. For five minutes he avoided attacks, an overwhelming feat in itself, before his savior finally came. A beautiful, Golden Persian came to his rescue and took down the Donphan. It was then Brett began to realize what had happened, or what was just beginning.

The next day Hitmonlee had found him, and he fully understood what had happened. Well, not fully, but enough to realize that this was somehow connected to his online game. He was happy with the pokemon he had on there, and felt much better since he had found them. They partially filled an unspeakable gap that had broken open only a few days ago.

So the next week Brett had spent walking north. He made it through Missouri with only a few attacks, but his new partners handled them with ease. Now he sat at a gas station in Northern Kansas, Hitmonlee by his side, Persian out scouting the area. He had plenty of supplies now, and was debating where to go next. Persian had been out awhile, and Brett was getting bored, so he decided to go inside the gas station and look around again. Most of the stuff was taken, but the store seemed in surprisingly good shape. He went around the back rooms of the store. The supply room was empty. Brett noticed the power box in the back, and strolled over to the box. He looked inside the box. All the switches were off, so he flipped them out of curiosity. Surprisingly, the power switched on, and the sounds of machines fired up. Apparently everything in the world wasn't in ruin, Brett thought.

"Urgent news from the capital." He heard from the front room.

Brett ran back into the front room. The T.V. was on.

"President Obama has hired a team of experts to this crisis, and they have successfully discovered the cause of the problem. We now bring you to a special announcement from a private military base by the experts who have discovered the root of the problem."

Brett stood wide eyed as the T.V. rolled. A younger man stood in front of a series of microphones. Obama stood behind him, along with another man.

"Hello, America, and whoever else may be watching. My name is Andrew, though, as of now, that is not important. You all know of the crisis on us all, and what I am about to tell you is going to be hard to believe, but I beg you to believe it."

The man on T.V. stopped, coughed, and continued on. He seemed so nervous, but completely serious.

"The name more important for me right now would be the one I go by on the internet, more importantly the website known as TPPC."

Now Brett was completely in attention. "I knew it..." he managed to mumble.

"I am Shrimpy, the administrator of the site." He continued. "The website is designed to be an online pokemon experience. I wouldn't expect you to believe everything I am going to say, but perhaps the experience the world has experienced in the past two weeks have been enough to convince you. Two weeks ago, I opened up the website and attempted to put a new program into the site. Needless to say, the program went wrong, and all of this has happened."

Brett continued to watch. Persian walked in behind him and took his place beside Brett.

"The program was a virus, nicknamed the GOD code. It is programmed in a sense that it is allowed to do what it wants, override any security, and think on its own. I won't say I know how this has happened, but the virus has taken over networks all across the world and used it to generate this mass of pokemon. It's only goal is to terminate in any way it can find, and, because the program was entered into my website, it took the form of pokemon."

This was starting to get interesting.

"However, there is something the program cannot do." He pulled up a small box. "Inside this hard drive is the memory, the only memory, of the login data for the website members. Without this, the virus cannot get back into the system and take over the user's pokemon. It can only make its own, new pokemon. Because of this, we still have a fighting chance. TPPC users, if any of you have experienced pokemon, YOUR pokemon on the website, coming to you and fighting by your side, this is not a coincidence. They are your pokemon, just as they are programmed to be yours, and they will fight for you. They have a link with you. These are our only hope. With these, we can fight the hostile pokemon that this virus is creating, the ones that are destroying our civilization."

Brett looked over at Persian, then outside to Hitmonlee standing watch. "This is surreal. But this means that you guys are part of me, right?"

Persian looked up at Brett and purred softly. Brett smiled, probably for the first time in weeks.

"So, I'm asking all of you out there, anybody who plays TPPC, so travel here. If we ban together, we can fight. Please, come to New York, and help us."

The power went off again right after that. Brett treated it nonchalantly and walked outside. For the first time, he knew what he was supposed to do. He only hoped other trainers heard the message.

He walked back over to Hitmonlee, who was standing and watching over the plains.

"Anything, buddy?" Brett asked.

Hitmonlee pointed out into the plains. A humanoid figure was approaching, walking down the road with a small, dark figure by their side. Brett waited until the figure got closer before he drew any weapons or ordered his pokemon to be on guard.

By the time they were close enough, he knew there would be no need.

The figure was a young man, around the same age as Brett, and he was smiling. Beside him walked a black Jolteon.

At last both figures stopped and stared at each other. It took almost a minute before somebody spoke.

"Erik Bodo." Brett said confidently. "The ever-so infamous Bodolicious."

Bodo smiled. "And you must be Brett. Or should I say, Noble?"

They walked up to each other and shook hands.

"So," Bodo said. "What's the plan?"

Brett smiled. "Well, I've got a lot to explain, but, to cut it short, we're going to New York."

* * *

Across the plains and rivers, back in Cleveland, Kim sat inside with Lawnbuddha and Blackfire as Shrimpy walked off the pedestal from giving his speech.

"This all makes a lot more sense now. Still can't really believe what's happening." Lawn said.

"Yea. But we've seen the pokemon. They listen and love us. We should go." Kim said. She had grown accustomed to being with Lawn and Blackfire over the past three days. They lived here, in what was left of Cleveland, inside an apartment complex downtown. This was not their original home, but the building was stout, so Lawn decided to move here after the attacks had started. They were both really nice, and Kim had grown comfortable with them.

"You tell the truth. And, saying as how we have nothing else really to do besides sit here and rot, I say we go!" Lawn replied.

"I'm up for it!" Princess Blackfire expressed very openly.

"Of course you are. You don't know what danger is, silly girl." Her father replied.

Lawn stood up and walked into the kitchen. "Well, it's early in the day, so what do you guys say we pack up and get going? I want to get out of the city by nightfall. So pack your bags and let's head out!"

Kim nodded and stood up. At least she had a purpose now. Without another word, she left to help pack.

* * *

Shrimpy sighed. "That's over. I'm so happy."

Deimos laughed. "Oh, come on. It can't be that bad."

Shrimpy turned around and looked at Deimos. "You have no idea."

"I would have ended the speech with something idiotic. It's the end of the world. Might as well go out doing something memorable." Deimos replied.

"Well, next time there is a dramatic, emergency meeting or worldwide announcement, I will for sure let you give it." Shrimpy commented.

"Deal."

They walked out of the room. "I'm just hoping people heard the speech. We're gonna need a lot of help to fix this problem."


	8. Reckless

It was later in the evening when Erik and Brett spotted the ruins of Kansas City. They had been walking for three days, making very good progress along the way. One day, a caravan of vehicles drove across them going west, some of whom gave them supplies and a night's rest. Kansas City was a sight for sore eyes compared to the endless plains to the west of them. Perhaps here they would find some people, or something that would help them.

They had spent the last three days catching up. It had been a long time since they had talked to each other on TPPC, and the first time they had ever met. Brett explained the T.V. message, and then they devised strategies in case of attack. Erik's Dark Jolteon was strong as well, and together with three formidable pokemon, they should be able to take on anything that wasn't completely bizarre.

They were walking through the outskirts and suburb areas that stretched a lot further than the eye made them seem. Most of the houses were barred. They could spot eyes looking out of the windows at them, but nobody made so much of an effort as to invite them in or see about them. These people acted like they had been under a lot of attack.

About a mile in they finally heard a voice.

"It's getting dark. You guys should come inside before it comes looking for you."

They turned around. A woman stood there, her door cracked open, waving at the two of them frantically. "Come on! You will get killed out there soon!"

Brett turned to Bodo. "Should we?"

Erik shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

They walked over to the woman, who seemed to sigh in relief after they had made it over.

"They have to come with us." Brett stated matter-of-factly as the pointed to the pokemon.

The woman seemed surprised at these remarks. "Are you guys some of the people they talked about on the news conference?" she asked.

Bodo nodded his head. "Yea, we're 'trainers', I guess you can call us. Don't worry. They won't do anything but sit quietly. Almost like pets."

The woman shrugged. She opened up the door wide and let them in. It was a decent sized house; two stories, furnished well, probably a higher middle class home. The woman was middle-aged, not old, but not young. She had brown hair and wore older clothes at the moment.

"Thank you for letting us in." Brett finally said. "But what is the 'it' you mentioned?"

The woman locked the door, then placed the boards back over it sideways to black it off. "It's a huge, strange monster. We don't know what it is. Apparently it's some sort of pokemon, or whatever the T.V. said these things were. I still don't believe it. It's some sort of apocalypse. This is the end of the world!"

Brett and Erik looked at each other, both thinking the same thoughts; this woman was insane. But, she had offered the shelter them, so they would not miss out on the offer. They followed her into the living room, where she bid them sit down.

"I haven't cooked in a week." She said. "As soon as the attacks started, I ran to the store and stocked up on food. I've got enough stuff here to last me a year!"

She sounded rather satisfied, if not happy, with this, almost as if she was proud she had prepared better than most people. Brett could tell this was a very sporadic woman.

"Does steak sound good?" She yelled back.

"Yea, that sounds delicious!" Bodo replied, trying to sound as excited as she was. Then he leaned over the Brett. "This chick is crazy…" he mumbled.

Brett nodded. "Tell me about it, but at least we've got a meal and a place to sleep tonight. I don't want to be outside when this monster comes around. I wonder what the pokemon is, anyways."

"She made it sound like a monster, so either she's exaggerating, which I wouldn't put it past her, or this thing is probably some sort of mutated beast."

The woman made their meal, and the two couldn't have been happier with the way things tasted. For the first time in multiple weeks, they were full on a cooked meal instead of convenient store chips and beef jerky. The woman seemed nice enough. She told them of her past. She was from Kansas City and had lived there all her life. She was married, and her husband had died during the initial attacks. Brett understood her pain. They spend most of the night talking. This was the first civilized contact the two had had since they started venturing.

And then the attack came.

Around midnight, they heard the first explosion. Buildings began to crumble in the distance, or so they could hear.

"What in the hell is going on?" Bodo asked.

"It's the beast. It's starting its attack." The woman replied. "We have to be patient, and pray that we will not be taken."

Brett and Erik had no real choice but to listen for now. They heard more explosions as the time ticked away. They continued to get closer and closer, though, and Brett began to get worried. At this rate, the attacks would be on them, at least it seemed that way from what they could hear.

And they were right. Within the hour, the attack made it to them. Before they could move, an explosion blew open the front wall. Brett and Erik stood up, and the woman moved backwards, screaming in fright. When the debris cleared, groups of Machoke were standing where the wall used to be. They began to enter the house.

"Hitmonlee!" Brett called. Instantly the legged-fighter took its side by Brett.

"Get them!" he yelled again.

"Leeeee!" Hitmonlee yelled as he ran towards the Machoke in an all out attack. The attack seemed like suicide. At least until he made it there. Hitmonlee's powerful legs flattened multiple Machoke with each kick, sending them flying dozens of feet in the air to hit the ground sliding.

"Kick ass, Hitmonlee!" Brett yelled.

Bodo, on the other hand, stood tall as the other side collapsed. The building was in shambles now as Electrode rolled in from behind.

"Damn, not good!" He turned around to Brett. "We've got to get out of here, now!" Erik motioned for the woman to follow as he ran out. "Jolteon, gun through them!"

The Dark Jolteon leaped forward, past Erik and Brett, and unleashed a fury of thunder upon the Machoke. What remained of the weakened force crumbled and fell. Brett stood content as the rest fell, then Erik and the woman ran past him in a mad dash.

"What's the hurry?" Brett yelled as Hitmonlee made is place back to his side.

"Just run! And don't ever turn around."

Brett sighed. "That's not funny. You know telling me that is gonna make me turn arOH MY GOD!"

Brett needed no more encouragement. He ran out faster than the other before him. Hitmonlee followed and Persian jumped out of the 2nd story right before the Electrode exploded and send the building falling down in shambles.

"Phew, that was close." Erik said.

Brett was trying to catch his breath. "You could have…..told me……earlier……ass."

Bodo laughed. "I told you not to look behind you."

"YOU KNOW THAT NEVER WORKS!" Brett replied.

"Uhh….guys." The woman said, interrupting their argument. "Look….behind….you."

Erik and Brett turned around. All happiness fell off of their face at the sight of the giant Dialga standing behind them, and it had a very angry look on its face.

"Well, shoot me." Bodo said. "Isn't blowing up the house good enough?"

"Guess not." Brett popped his knuckles. "Hitmonlee, Persian, do your worst." The two pokemon stepped forward, ready to fight the monster. "This must be your monster?"

The woman was speechless. "Yea…that's it."

"You seem confident." Bodo said sarcastically.

"I'm scared half the death, but I'm not gonna go out hiding." Brett said in reply.

Bodo smiled. "I like your style. Jolteon, hit 'em with everything you've got." Jolteon stepped forward with the others. "This will be a hell of a fight." He looked at the woman. "You should hide somewhere. This is gonna be big."'

The woman didn't argue. She just turned and took cover in the nearest alley. These kids were crazy, and she wasn't about to risk her life with them. She did wish them luck, though. Those 'pokemon' were following their orders, but she just saw no way they could keep up with such a horrifying beast.

"Any famous words of glory or something?" Brett asked Bodo.

"Hmm. Nope. Just attack."

Hitmonlee, Persian, and Jolteon ran at the Dialga with killing intention. Dialga finally began to respond, and the battle was on. Jolteon started out the long distance attack. He stopped, curled up his needles, and sent an array flying at Dialga. The beast took the hit nearly unharmed. Hitmonlee flew up and kicked, aiming for Dialga's face. He ducked under and Hitmonlee flew over, landing on the far side ready to go again. Persian aimed for where his head dropped to, and managed to land a successful slash on the side of Dialga's face, but the legend seemed unharmed once again. Jolteon ran around him and unleashed another fire of pin missiles behind the target. Nothing seemed to be working.

Dialga ran at Hitmonlee and raised its claw, which began to glow, and slashed at the fighter, who barely dodged the blow and landed behind Dialga. As soon as he landed, he launched a counter-offensive and low kicked for the creature's leg. It landed, but Dialga caught itself and struck again with the claw, this time Hitmonlee was hit and flew backwards. It caught itself again, though this time it was in pain.

Persian had taken this time as an opportunity to attack, and jumped up to land on Dialga's back. He unleashed a flurry of scratches and claw marks onto the back of Dialga's neck, which actually seemed to be hurting it. Dialga jerked back and forth trying to get the golden cat off its back, but could not manage. Finally Persian jumped off, as it could not hold on any longer, but he had accomplished his goal. Jolteon slid underneath Dialga and, instead of pin missiles, unleashed a huge bolt of lightning into Dialga's stomach. This time Dialga screamed in pain and jumped backwards. Smoke was emitting from Dialga this time as the three teammates regrouped.

Dialga finally made his move, or sound. It raised its head and let out a massive wail that sent everybody, even Brett and Erik, to the ground. The sound could not be described in words, and explosions began to erupt from all around. Roar of Time was a horribly destructive move, and it proved itself then. There was nowhere to hide, and Dialga knew it had them right where it wanted them.

After the sound ended, Dialga walked up to Persian, who was lying on the ground unconscious. Brett and Bodo stood up slowly, apparently far enough away the blast did not affect them as much. Fear sparked in Brett's eyes as he saw the legendary beast attacking his helpless friend. "

"Hey, get away from him!" Brett screamed, but nothing was going to stop him. Dialga raised its foot and placed it above Persian's head. This would be the killing blow.

Well, it would have, had another pokemon not been there to aid him. Something held up Dialga's leg.

"Heracross!" it screamed as it threw Dialga backwards. Dialga landed alright, but was in shock that something had stopped it. This Heracross was bright golden, just as Persian was, and stood as confident as any pokemon ever had.

"Now that was a dramatic entrance!" Erik yelled.

"Yea. He could have come in a little bit sooner. Didn't have to worry me so damn much." Brett sighed.

Heracross stood ready for Dialga to charge, but instead the beast turned and ran. Heracross roared in victory.

"Roar of Time…apparently it hasn't had enough time to recharge…" Brett said. Then he jolted for Persian. "Are you guys alright?!" he said worriedly as he knelt down.

Hitmonlee stood up slowly, along with Jolteon. Persian leaned its head up and gave a vote of confidence, and Brett sighed with relief.

"Guess we beat Dialga?" Bodo said. "All that confidence of yours paid off."

Brett laughed. "Of course! Though Heracross showing up had a little to do with it, but I'm sure we would have been fiiiiiine." He stood up and punched his fists together. "Nothing to it."

The woman came out from where she was hiding. "You two are insane." She told them. "But, I owe you my life." She reached inside of her pocket and gave them a key.

"What is this for?" Erik asked.

"This will give you access to my truck. It's parked inside that parking garage." She pointed over towards the inner city. "I just never felt comfortable enough to get it, nor did I know what to do once I got there. She looked down and wiped off her clothes. "I have other people I can stay with here. You guys have somewhere to be, so use that."

"Wow…well thanks." Brett said. "We owe you a lot."

The woman laughed. "No, you saved my life. It's the least I can do!"

The three sat there for a few hours and gave their pokemon time to rest. Heracross was a welcome addition to the group, as he helped the woman clean through the rubble and find a few possessions she wanted. After enough rest, Brett and Erik said their goodbyes, and, together with the pokemon, walked into the inner city. The parking garage was only an hour's walk, even with the rubble, and the woman had kept her promise. They found the truck near the top of the garage, which was open. It was a large Chevy, full of gas and ready to go. The pokemon jumped in the back and they took off out of the city, onwards towards their destination of the DC.


	9. Chapter 9

Kim coughed as she walked over the horizon into Pittsburgh. Smoke covered everything around, that and fog, and left the visibility at near zero. She didn't like the feel of this city, but Lawnbuddha insisted that this was the fastest way to DC, so they took it. Blackfire was facing the same problems as Kim. The smoke was irritating to them both. Apparently a lot of the power plants and factories were left running when the attacks hit Pittsburgh and, without proper maintenance, fell into disrepair, turning the city into this smokey wasteland.

"Just a bit more!" Lawnbuddha said as they continued walking. "A bit more and we can find some cover from this smoke. The inner city should have enough buildings we can find somewhere to rest."

Kim coughed again. "Are you sure we should do that?" She had always heard bad things about Pittsburgh and Detroit, and she didn't know if she even wanted to enter the city. However, she trusted her new found companions and decided they would keep her safe.

She thought back again to Latias. That bird had saved her life twice, and it saddened her that she had left Kim in so little of time. Then she thought about her parents again. Oh, how she hoped they were safe. But right now, all she could do was trek on and do what she had to do. They had to get to DC. The group had worked out a system with their pokemon. Sudowoodo led the group from a hundred or so yards away, while Swampert stayed back the same distance to cover their back side. Buneary stayed in Kim's hands, one of her only signs of comfort.

Sudo came running back to the group. "Suuudoo!" he pointed to where he came from.

Lawn squinted his eyes to look at where it was pointing. "I think I see people!" Lawn said. "Good find, Sudo."

Sudo smiled and Lawn took the lead. "Go stand back by Swampert. We are gonna figure some things out about this place from the locals." He took off down the road towards the people. Kim and Blackfire followed.

They picked up speed as they ran, slowly downhill, to the people Sudo had spotted. If Sudo hadn't been up there, they might have walked right by them and never noticed. Kim wondered how Lawn had even saw them, but she didn't really care, nor did it matter.

They ran up to the person at last. It was actually about a dozen people. They were all ragged and dirty, and seemed dispirited, though Kim had no doubts as to why they would seem that way.

"Hey. We are traveling through, and we were wondering if you guys could help us!" Lawnbuddha asked them once they stopped moving.

An older woman approached them and removed a hood above her head. "You shouldn't have came here. It's a death trap."

Lawn gave an odd look on his face. "Well that's great news." he said to Kim and Blackfire. "May we ask why or what?"

"Those monsters. They took over all the factories and set them to overhaul. All that's left is all this smoke. We can't get anywhere near the factories."

"What did the monsters look like?" Lawn asked.

"All sorts of different things. I can't really describe them. They just float around and leave a smoke trail everywhere. We are all slowly dying here. That's why were trying to get to Heinz field. The Army put a temporary roof over it and cleaned out the smoke as much as they could. A lot of survivors are there."

Kim gasped at the thought. This town was in far worse shape than anywhere else she had saw yet. She felt bad for all its denizens, and wished deep inside she could help them.

"Well, we just need to get through the city, but this sounds like a problem.." Lawn said.

"Somebody like you...somebody with those monsters helping them...they went into the factory awhile ago, but never came back. He said he could stop the problem, but we haven't heard anything from him."

"Really?" Lawn said. "Which factory? And how did you know they were with us? We tried to hide them."

"Your eyes grow accustomed to the smoke, even if your lungs don't." The woman smiled dryly.

"We should go help him!" Kim said almost without hesitation. "We would want the same thing if it was us in there."

Lawn smiled. "Already thinking about it!"

The woman's expression changed. "Don't! You would just be throwing away more lives."

"Don't worry. With Sudo and Swampert, whatever is in those factories won't be a problem for us!" Blackfire spoke from behind Lawn.

"That's the spirit!" Lawn replied, then faced the woman again. "Which factory?"

The woman sighed, then pointed. "That one, over there."

Dozens of smokestacks came out of the building she pointed at. It was about a mile away, and huge, to say the least. This would be one daunting challenge, Kim thought to herself. But they had to take it and save whoever went in there. Kim wondered who it might be...if it was somebody she had associated with when all this was just a game.

* * *

Back across the country, Fading ran. The Golden Mewtwo behind her was way too strong for any of her pokemon, and she had found a lot of hers in the past two weeks. Behind her, a dark colored Vaporeon and Jolteon ran with just as much urgency as she did. She had left her Lapras at the docks to escape, and many of her other pokemon were roaming around the city. Single-handedly, she had been cleaning up the city around her, but this was one problem she couldn't clean, no matter how much she tried. Nothing could stand up to this beast. She ran on, desperate to get away. When she let all the other pokemon free to live, Vaporeon and Jolteon refused to go. She couldn't tell them no. She didn't have the heart, so she let them follow.

An explosion blew up the buildings behind her as Mewtwo closed in fast. She had to find somewhere to hide, and fast.

"HEY! OVER HERE!" she heard. Quickly, her head spun down an alley and she spotted the people she heard. There were two guys standing over a man hole. Both were waving at her. "Fading! Get in here now!"

Fading? How did they know who she was? Whoever they were, they were from the site, and they knew of her Vaporeon and Jolteon behind her. Then again, she had posted a picture of herself, but to think people would remember this far into a crisis some small detail? She shook her head. She didn't have time to worry about that. She turned down the hallway and bolted for the two men. They had stopped waving now, and prepared to get the man hole ready for entrance.

Fading made it to them, only to hear a "Just jump!" She listened without hesitation and fell into the hole. Vaporeon and Jolteon followed shortly after, and at last the two men jumped in, the last one closing the man hole behind them.

"Who are you two? How did you know who I was?" Fading began to ask.

"No time! The smaller one said. "Mewtwo isn't dumb. We've got to hurry! Sasha is waiting for us!" he ran off ahead into the sewer.

Sasha! Fading remembered the name somewhere, but she couldn't quite figure it out now, nor did she have the time.

The taller man ran to her side. "I'm Nino. That's h83r. Sorry to run like this, but we've got to get the hell out of here."

Fading recognized both names, and nodded. "Alright. Good idea." She looked back up at the man hole. Mewtwo wouldn't be far behind. "Let's go." She ran, and Nino followed.

Together, the three ran down a series of sewer tunnels. It was dark, but much safer than incoming falling buildings all around them. So far, none of the buildings had collapsed the ground, and they were lucky. Fading followed, just happy to have found somebody who understood her plight. It seemed odd that h83r new exactly where he was going, but she paid no mind to it.

They ran on for another fifteen minutes. Fading was exhausted by now, but she couldn't stop. Both h83r and Nino finally stopped. "We have to go back up here. Hopefully Mewtwo lost us long enough we can cross."

"Cross? Cross what?" Fading asked.

"The Golden Gate Bridge. On the other side they've got fallout shelters fixed up. We have to get there. Mewtwo has tore down most of the city, along with everybody following him." h83r said.

Nino climbed the latter and moved the man hole, then climbed up. Fading followed with her pokemon, then h83r. They hadn't lied. Once they surfaced, they were less than a mile from the Golden Gate Bridge. Nino took off without warning, leading h83e and Fading to follow.

Together, the three began a trek across the bridge. It was a long, risky shot, but if they made it, they would be safe in the fallout shelters. Fading was looking forward to safety. She hadn't had that feeling in over a week.

The first half of the run went by uneventful. Cars were parked all over the bridge, so travel involved running around vehicles. The thought of taking a vehicle occurred, but the bridge was so full that they wouldn't be able to drive it off. San Francisco was the first city hit, and now was one of the most desolate. It was still amazing the carnage that had taken place, here and across the world, in only two weeks.

Their journey across the bridge was cut short. In front of them stood an army of pokemon that spanned the bridge in full. Fading looked behind them, and news only darkened. Mewtwo was behind them, standing alone. Fading wasn't sure which side was worse. If they wanted to make their way across the bridge, they would have to fight their way out. Vaporeon and Jolteon stepped in front of Fading.

"Guess we fight, then?" Nino asked.

H83r blew a whistle and a splash came from below them. Within seconds, the largest Articuno Fading could have dreamed of halted in mid-air.

"Give 'em hell, Sasha!" H83r yelled.

Fading smiled. This would, at least, be interesting.

Those were her last thoughts before the pain surged through her body. She barely managed to turn around to see what had happened. Nino stood there, gun in hand, and H83r with a knife.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but you were doing too good of a job." Nino smiled an evil smile. Tears rolled down Fading's face. "Why?..." she barely managed to speak.

Mewtwo landed beside Nino and H83r. "You both did well." it spoke.

Fading couldn't believe it. She had been betrayed! They were working with Mewtwo! But why? Tears continued to fall as Fading took the pain. It was almost too much to bare. She couldn't die here. Not now.

Vaporeon and Jolteon both saw the anguish, and charged after H83r and Nino. They were cut short, however, by the Articuno, Sasha, H83r had called it, and knocked backwards with a giant gust of wind, which sent both Fading and her pokemon to their backs.

Fading screamed in pain. This was too much. She stood up again, her hand clutching her wound in her shoulder.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." Nino said. "You are dumb to think I only had one shot."

He pulled the trigger to fire, but the gun was launched from his hand by a flash of black and red. Fading smiled a bit when she saw her Arcanine fly into her enemies. It looked back at her, roaring. Somehow, fading knew what she had to do. She fought the pain and walked over to Vaporeon and Jolteon. Jolteon was ok, but Vaporeon was hurt. She picked it up. Each second she wanted to scream in pain, but she kept her resolve.

She looked back at Arcanine and nodded. Mewtwo was now moving towards her, but Arcanine had no intentions of letting him through. This was her only chance.

"Thank you..." She said as another tear, this one of sadness, rolled down her face.

With Vaporeon in hand and Jolteon by her side, she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.


End file.
